Finksburg man sentenced for three robberies

Mike FarabaughTHE BALTIMORE SUN

A Finksburg man convicted in three armed robberies within 12 days in March was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court.

Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. sentenced Daniel V. Childers, 21, of the 2500 block of Lawndale Road to a 20-year term with all but nine years suspended for robbery with a deadly weapon. The judge ordered and suspended consecutive 10-year terms on each of two robbery charges.

Childers pleaded guilty in August to robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of robbery.

Burns gave Childers credit for about nine months he has served in the Carroll County Detention Center. The judge also placed Childers on five years of supervised probation upon his release, and ordered him to pay $323 in restitution.

Childers told Burns he would not make excuses for his actions.

"I really was bad into drugs," he said. "If and when I get out, I plan to stay in rehabilitation so I don't go back to the way I was."

Police arrested Childers for two of the robberies while he was returning home after robbing a third business, the E-Z Minit Market in the 200 block of Hanover Pike in Hampstead. He stole $181 and a carton of cigarettes.

Robert K. Parker, a Westminster attorney representing Childers, sought leniency for his client because Childers has made marked progress in a drug rehabilitation program at the county jail since his arrest in March.

Parker said Childers, who began a life of addiction at age 14, used an unloaded and nonworking BB gun in all three robberies.

Prosecutor Robert N. Smith III argued that Childers deserved incarceration because the robberies were premeditated. He said the BB gun may have not worked and may have not been loaded, but it "absolutely terrified several victims."

Smith said Childers is "at best, a marginal candidate for community supervision."

According to court records, Childers stole $106 and a carton of cigarettes from the Jiffy Mart in the 1100 block of S. Main St. in Hampstead on March 12. A week later, Childers robbed the High's Store in Gamber of $100 and a pack of cigarettes.

Through vehicle descriptions given by witnesses, state police went to Childers' home, where his parents identified a photograph of their son made by a surveillance camera at one of the stores.

According to court records, Smith said $79 in stolen money was recovered when Childers was arrested and has been returned to the E-Z Minit Market.

After his arrest, Childers led police to a location on Sandymount Road where he had discarded a BB pistol used in the robberies, prosecutors said.